USA Men Defeat Italy in Classification Game

(Photo: Jeff Cable, Jeff Cable’s Photography Blog)

After losing to Spain in the quarterfinals, the USA Men’s Water Polo Team were set up to take on Italy in a classification game to determine their overall placement in the tournament. Team USA fell to Italy late in their preliminary round game on July 29.

Though the game started slowly, the Americans seemed to be in a different head space. And it was perhaps that space they were in that was keeping Italy from scoring. Goalkeeper Drew Holland was an impressive 60% save percentage by the end of the game and he was determined to save everything he could. At one point in the game, it was his face that denied the ball from going in (see photo above). The speed of that ball, it most definitely had to hurt, but when he realized it hadn’t gone in, the look on his face and his yell of joy showed that he would do that again if it meant keeping the ball out. He also made a huge save on a penalty shot at 2:10 of the final quarter when the teams were tied and it was likely that the next team to score would win the game.

“It feels really good to win. We’re fighting for fifth place. Our coach said that that’s our new medal. That’s our target. We can’t control the past but we’re all doing our best to pick each other up and focus and play sports. You know, that’s why we’re here, so we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to compete. And that was a really good team. Our guys played great,” said Jesse Smith, captain of the USA Men’s team.

The attitude described by Smith shows that each game is important. And each game offers experience, especially for the new players on the team.

“It’s a huge win for this young team…to beat the World Champions at the Olympic Games is an important thing. I can’t be more proud how we react after the tough loss against Spain. There is rumors that the system is not good because the games between 5th and 8th place should not be played out. Everyone has got their own opinion, but from our side, for my team every game on this high level stage is important for us. We treat this game as a final, we treat every game as a final because we don’t have enough games as the Europeans have. From my point of view this (game) is a great reaction from our team. We just need to prepare for the game against Croatia,” said head coach Dejan Udovicic.

For Johnny Hooper his shot on Friday with just 1:35 remaining in the game displayed Coach Udovicic’s thoughts in action. The play was drawn up during the time out just as the clock showed 1:48 remaining in the game and Team USA was going on the power play. The play was going to rely on Hooper to put the ball in and was a play that he had struggled with throughout the tournament.

“A few times I actually failed at that shot this tournament and I can say I learned from my mistakes during this tournament. It’s an Olympic Games, everyone comes with their A game so if you don’t shoot it almost perfectly, it’s not going in. And I missed it a few times in big games this tournament and when that play was drawn up, I almost tried to make it impossible to mess up on that. Gave it everything I’ve got,” said Hooper

While Hooper’s shot gave the Americans the win, he plays a critical role in each quarter of the game. He is Team USA’s primary sprinter when it comes to the start of each quarter.

“I sprint four quarters for our team. Not a lot of guys in different countries do that, so I definitely have a little bit of a different routine or ritual during practice and before games. I think the start, the start is by far the most important part of any sprint for any game. At this level, when you’re starting at, like, basically dead water, which is you’re starting from nothing, it’s all about being fair but also, you’re deceptive. I think that every country, every person who’s sprinting for the ball has their own way of doing it. For me, the most important part is my start, by far,” Hooper said.

And it must work for him because in the tournament he leads the sprinters up to this point in the matches, having won 14 of the 17 he has taken for 82%. Team USA will take on Team Croatia to determine who is the fifth-place team and who is the sixth-place team. The Americans certainly are aiming to take the win in the game which will be played Saturday, August 8th at 11:00am JST.

Note: If you love the photo, be sure to check out more by visiting Jeff Cable’s Photography Blog here.